Monday, June 23, 2014

First things first: Yes, I did see Grumpy Cat at BookExpo America, though it was all
a mistake because the Chronicle Books
booth was in the middle of my path to New York Review Books, where
I wanted to ask about 2015 translations from Russian… this during the crowded,
sweaty BookCon day of BEA, the day when
part of the book exhibit was open to the public, the day when big names like
John Green, David Mitchell, and Stan Lee came, spoke, and signed books, the day
when it was tough to walk five feet without a collision. But I did see Grumpy
Cat.

But enough digression! The real highlight of BEA 2014 was a market
focus on literature in translation rather than a single country—2012, for
example, was Russia and 2015 will be China—which means there were panel
discussions and even a venue, distant though it was, for presentations about
translation and funding. The day before the book exhibit opened featured a full
day of panels, beginning with “Mapping Translation Today: From Niche to Global
Bestseller,” which included author Joël Dicker,
who wrote The
Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, (translated from the French by
Sam Taylor, published in the US by Penguin, and, I must say, less interesting as
a novel than as a phenomenon), and Carol Brown Janeway, an editor, publishing
executive, and translator who addressed topics like Alfred A. Knopf’s history
of supporting translation and the smoldering question of “Who owns the English
language?”

My notes trailed off after that first session, not so much
for lack of interest but because so much of the material was familiar, albeit
with a slight twist: it confirmed my feel that there’s an upswing in literary
translations or, at the very least, that the community is growing and even,
perhaps, beginning to thrive. As often happens when there isn’t talk about specific
Russian books, I enjoyed hearing about translations from Polish: author Mariusz Szczygieł,
his translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones, and editor Sal Robinson of Melville House
spoke about Gottland: Mostly True Stories from Half of
Czechoslovakia,which I made
sure to get a copy of when Szczygieł signed books; I loved my visit to the
Czech Republic years ago and could tell I’d enjoy Szczygieł’s humor. (Gottland got a good
review in today’s New York Times.)…
Two days later there was an entire panel devoted to Marek Hłasko
that made it thoroughly worthwhile to trundle off to the Javits Center for a 9:30
arrival (on my birthday, no less!) when I was so tired I wanted to sleep in:
David Goldfarb moderated a talk with Sal Robinson, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, and
Ross Ufberg of New Vessel Press. There were lots of highlights there, including
Lloyd-Jones’s account of visiting Hłasko’s grave and collaboration between
Melville House and New Vessel when they released two books—The Graveyard,
translated by Norbert Guterman for Melville House, and Killing
the Second Dog, translated by Tomasz Mirkowicz for New Vessel—in fairly
rapid succession. The happiest moment (for me) of the panel was probably
Lloyd-Jones’s assertion that she sees new interest in, as I jotted down, “20th
C (dead) classic writers.” Of whom I see an abundance in Russian literature. There
is more Hłasko on the way from New Vessel: All Backs Were Turned,
also translated by Mirkowicz, is coming late this year. Goldfarb was kind
enough to give me copies of The Graveyard
and Killing the Second Dog at the
Polish Cultural Institute
booth, which was nicely stocked with translated books to hand out (sadly, this is
a rarity at booths that focus on promoting a country’s literature) and staffed
by knowledgeable, very pleasant people.

In Russian book news, I had a nice visit with Mark Krotov of
The Overlook Press: Mark was
especially excited about Lilianna Lungina’s Подстрочник (Word for Word in Polly Gannon and Ast A. Moore’s translation), which
Mark said truly is a transcript of Lungina’s
life stories, as told to Oleg Dorman. Lungina was a translator, which means
I’ve felt doubly guilty for not having read the book ever since someone
insisted, during a snowshoe-and-ski outing several years ago, that I absolutely
had to read it… something I’ve heard over and over ever since, even when walking
on regular shoes. Overlook is also reissuing some Russian books this year:
Gaito Gazdanov’s An Evening With Claire (Jodi
Daynard’s translation of Вечер у Клэр) and Fazil
Iskander’s Rabbits and Boa Constrictors (Ronald
E. Peterson’s translation of Кролики и
удавы). Bonus: I can’t wait for my copy of Christina Nichol’sWaiting for the Electricity, which
takes place in Georgia and is reputed to be very, very funny.

The upcoming titles from New York Review Books that took me to the borders of Grumpy Cat’s
territory are Alexander Boguslawski’s new translation of Sasha Sokolov’s Школа
для дураков(A School for Fools) and A Prank, a collection of early stories
by Anton Chekhov, translated by Marina Blitshteyn. NYRB has been on a roll with
translations from Russian: Joanne Turnbull won
the Read Russia Prize for her translation of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s Autobiography of a
Corpse: Turnbull was a finalist along with Robert and Elizabeth
Chandler, who translated An
Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman (previous
post). Both those books are also finalists for the PEN
Translation Prize, along with another NYRB title: Anna Seghers’s Transit,
translated byMargot Bettauer Dembo,
whom I know a bit from the American Literary Translators Association.

The High Line at 10th Ave. & 17th St.

Other highlights and books
included meeting with Skyscraper Publications,
which is publishing Anna Starobinets’s short story collection Икарова железа (The Icarus Gland), in Jamie’s Rann’s translation, later this year.
Skyscraper also published Anna Arutunyan’s The
Putin Mystique: Inside Russia’s power cult… I picked up a copy of Brian
Moynahan’s Leningrad:
Siege and Symphony, which will be out from Atlantic Monthly Press in October: it looks like a promising blend
of cultural, military, and political history… The nice people of Duke University Press gave me a copy of
The Russia Reader, edited by Adele
Barker and Bruce Grant: The Russia Reader
is a wonderful brick of a book that contains dozens of pieces and excerpts of fiction,
poetry, and nonfiction, beginning with Aleksandr Blok’s “The Scythians” and
ending with Irina Sandomirskaia’s “Return to the Motherland,” with wonderful
stuff like anecdotes about New Russians and a brief bit from Elena
Molokhovets’s A Gift to Young Housewives; or a Means of
Reducing Household Expenses in various places in between. It’s fun to just pick up and read. And it
makes me want to plan imaginary college courses again!… Counterpoint was kind enough to send me a copy of Pushkin Hills,
Katherine Dovlatov’s translation of Sergei Dovlatov’s Заповедник,
which I’m especially interested in reading after meeting Katherine at two literature
and translation events… It was great to see relatively new publishers Stefan Tobler, from And Other Stories, and Will Evans, from
Deep Vellum: each is bringing out a
Russian book this year. AOS will release Oleg Pavlov’s The Matiushin Case,
translated by Andrew Bromfield, this summer in the US; Matiushin is the second book in Pavlov’s Tales from the Last Days trilogy. The first book in the trilogy,
known as Captain of the Steppe, was
translated by Ian Appleby, and Anna Gunin is working on the third book. Deep
Vellum has a collection of Mikhail
Shishkin’s works, translated by various translators, coming out late this
year… In looking through catalogues, I see a reissue of Michael Glenny’s
translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard
on its way from Melville House as
well as Ian Dreiblatt’s new translation of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose.” As luck would
have it, I met Ian, who works at Seven Stories Press, at the Melville House booth,
and thoroughly enjoyed speaking with him about Gogol, retranslation, and lots
of other random things that tired translators talk about. Translators seem to
enjoy cooking so I’ll mention that I also paged through a copy of The Old World Kitchen:
The Rich Tradition of European Peasant Cooking and need to order a
copy… On a historical note, Serhii Plokhy’s The
Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Unionwill be out on in early
July from Oneworld Publications, the
publisher for two of my works in various stages and states of progress: Eugene
Vodolazkin’s Laurus and Vadim
Levental’s Masha Regina… To end on a
very happy note, one of the most fun meetings during my days at and around BEA
happened by chance: my translator friend and colleague Olga Bukhina introduced me to Eugene Yelchin,
author and illustrator of Breaking Stalin’s Nose, a Newbery
Honor Book that Olga translated into Russian (as Сталинский Нос) with Eugene. Eugene’s new book
about Russia, also written for children, Arcady’s Goal, which I’m reading slowly in PDF as I wait for a
paper copy, will be out this fall. I can’t believe how much emotion and subtext
Eugene manages to work into relatively simple language that tells the story of a
boy who’s the son of enemies of the people. Olga, who seems to know all the
best places to visit and eat on any Manhattan street or avenue, brought us
out-of-towners to the High Line—somehow I’d never been!—and then for snacks. A
wonderful time was had by all… To end on another happy note, I also want to
thank Read Russia and the Institute
of Translation for some books! I just started the book known in English
as Children of
Rogozhin, by Nadia Guerman (the Russian book’s cover carries the title Рыбы
молчат по-испански and the name Nadezhda Belen’kaia), which is about
international adoption, a world I’ve seen a bit of in the US and Russia, and
I enjoyed reading some of the stories in Anna Matveeva’s story collection Подожди, я умру — и приду (Hold on, I’ll Die and Come Back), a 2013
Big Book finalist. It was also great to find a copy of Masha Regina, which on my to-be-translated list, at the booth: thank
you to everyone for the hospitality, events, tasty food from Mari Vanna, and books during BEA!

Disclosures: The usual, including Read Russia and publishers I've worked with.

Up Next: It remains to be seen… but probably Yuri Mamleyev’s The Sublimes.